as in capabilities
the physical or mental power to do something
as a result of the accident the once-vigorous athlete lost the ability to walk
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Recent Examples of abilities
Like so many of the players featured in The Prospects series, his next step may have to be a senior loan to test his abilities even more in a tougher, competitive environment.
—
Rob Tanner, New York Times, 1 May 2026
Perhaps Grogu's most impressive feature is his use of the Force, a power in the Star Wars universe that can push, pull and levitate objects, among other abilities.
—Kirsten Acuna, PEOPLE, 30 Apr. 2026
Instead, through projects like the ENIAC replica, students can leverage traits many of them share, like the abilities to hyperfocus and to precisely repeat tasks.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2026
Thanks to adaptive equipment, people of various abilities can benefit from scuba diving.
—Kathleen Wong, USA Today, 30 Apr. 2026
Classes are accessible to all levels and abilities.
—Ramona Sentinel, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
In further experiments in mice, the researchers found that the type of food appeared to matter, too—eating a fat-rich diet (in this case, corn oil) emerged as key to boosting the T cells’ abilities when compared with carbohydrate- or protein-rich diets.
—Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 29 Apr. 2026
The trailer gives a closer look into new details of the game, including 14 unique character abilities, 22 locations including the Ewok Village, the Sandcrawler, Echo Base and Jedi Temple and more in-game missions and rewards.
—Kennedy French, Variety, 29 Apr. 2026
This model is perfect for people who need a good mobile workspace or want a high-quality entertainment center but don’t need the extra abilities of the iPad Pros.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 24 Apr. 2026
Rob Tanner, New York Times, 1 May 2026
Perhaps Grogu's most impressive feature is his use of the Force, a power in the Star Wars universe that can push, pull and levitate objects, among other abilities.
—Kirsten Acuna, PEOPLE, 30 Apr. 2026
Instead, through projects like the ENIAC replica, students can leverage traits many of them share, like the abilities to hyperfocus and to precisely repeat tasks.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2026
Thanks to adaptive equipment, people of various abilities can benefit from scuba diving.
—Kathleen Wong, USA Today, 30 Apr. 2026
Classes are accessible to all levels and abilities.
—Ramona Sentinel, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
In further experiments in mice, the researchers found that the type of food appeared to matter, too—eating a fat-rich diet (in this case, corn oil) emerged as key to boosting the T cells’ abilities when compared with carbohydrate- or protein-rich diets.
—Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 29 Apr. 2026
The trailer gives a closer look into new details of the game, including 14 unique character abilities, 22 locations including the Ewok Village, the Sandcrawler, Echo Base and Jedi Temple and more in-game missions and rewards.
—Kennedy French, Variety, 29 Apr. 2026
This model is perfect for people who need a good mobile workspace or want a high-quality entertainment center but don’t need the extra abilities of the iPad Pros.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 24 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abilities
Noun
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With the third-year pro also coming off a subpar 2025 campaign, Wells’ offensive capabilities have been the subject of questioning in recent weeks and months.—
Gary Phillips,
New York Daily News,
26 Apr. 2026
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In the case of Iran, here too, the threat level was not enough to warrant strikes, according to a top government official responsible for observing and evaluating Iran’s capabilities.—
Gary Franks,
Hartford Courant,
26 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The pact also calls for strengthening operational capacities of the Haiti National Police and Armed Forces of Haiti, defining cooperation protocols with the Gang Suppression Force and the reactivation of the National Commission for Disarmament, Dismantlement and Reintegration.—
Jacqueline Charles,
Miami Herald,
24 Apr. 2026
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Some of the capacities cited may also represent theoretical potential or systems that are not consistently operating at full scale.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Try this instead The prevalence of vaguebooking also speaks to the breakdown of communication skills more broadly.—
Charles Trepany,
USA Today,
28 Apr. 2026
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Facing a crisis in critical thinking skills, some are reviving oral exams, forcing students to defend their assignments to instructors in real time.—
Jocelyn Gecker,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Sheffield DocFest, the UK’s leading documentary film festival, will be welcoming some of nonfiction film’s biggest talents to the 33rd edition of the international event.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
29 Apr. 2026
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To show their talents and skills in the world, but don’t have a chance.—
Preezy Brown,
VIBE.com,
29 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The researchers also announced a contest with a $200,000 prize pool on the popular machine learning competition site Kaggle for outside researchers to help build evaluations for the five cognitive faculties where existing benchmark tests are weakest.—
Jeremy Kahn,
Fortune,
30 Mar. 2026
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Strange occurrences quickly destabilize the group, with the writer becoming increasingly unhinged, convinced the location has an inexplicable hold over her creative faculties.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
17 Mar. 2026
Noun
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This model reflects Japan’s long-standing corporate culture, which prioritizes new hires for their general potential—their aptitudes and aspirations, as opposed to their current skill sets or university majors—and then trains them on the job.—
GRACIA LIU-FARRER,
Foreign Affairs,
18 Nov. 2025
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More money is apt to make homeschooling worse and far less tailored to the individual student and their interests and aptitudes by encouraging parents to substitute pricey group programs for the requisite effort of individualized instruction.—
Marie Sapirie,
Forbes.com,
25 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Learn from that and then get incredibly good rebuild core competencies.—
Richard Tribou,
The Orlando Sentinel,
27 Apr. 2026
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Structured interviews, where each interviewer focuses on specific competencies, can also improve efficiency during the hiring process.—
Angelica Leicht,
CBS News,
20 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Abilities.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abilities. Accessed 4 May. 2026.
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